The Cat Who Saved the Library: Is the Sequel Worth Reading?

Posted On October 25, 2025

Hi Readers! I just finished the fifth book for the month! It was the second 1-star book I’ve read this year, which is okay, but I wasn’t expecting to not like this one. I had read The Cat Who Saved the Books and enjoyed it. Even that one was slightly preachy, but overall I liked it. But, the sequel, The Cat Who Saved the Library was not as impactful. Check out the review and if you have read it, let me know if you felt it too or if I’m in the minority on this one.

~~GOODREADS DESCRIPTION~~

The long-awaited sequel to the #1 international bestseller The Cat Who Saved Books—a delightful and heartwarming celebration of books, libraries, cats, and the people who love them.

A chronic asthma condition prevents thirteen-year-old Nanami from playing sports or spending time with her friends after school. But nothing can stop her from one of her favorite activities. Nanami loves to read and happily spends much of her free time in the school library, cocooned among the stacks.

Then one day, Nanami notices that, despite the library being as deserted as ever, some of her favorite books, including literary classics like Arsène Lupin, Gentleman Burglar and Anne of Green Gables are disappearing from the shelves. When she alerts the library staff, they dismiss her concerns. But just as Nanami is about to return to her reading, she spots a suspicious man in a gray suit. Eager to discover what he’s up to, she follows him. The chase is cut short when Nanami suffers an asthma attack. By the time she catches her breath, the man has disappeared and all that is left behind is a mysterious light filtering through the library’s familiar passageways.

That’s when Tiger, the talking tabby cat who saves books, comes to the rescue.

Are Nanami and Tiger prepared to face the dangerous challenges that lie ahead? Why are faceless gray soldiers burning books in a stone castle? And what happened to Rintaro, the socially withdrawn hero who helped Tiger save books in a second-hand bookshop?

At a time of increased book bannings worldwide, Sosuke Natsukawa urges us not to underestimate the power of great literature—and to be prepared to defend our freedom to choose.

~~THOUGHTS~~

I remember enjoying The Cat Who Saved the Books because it was a nice combination of fun and wisdom without being preachy. However, I can’t say the same for The Cat Who Saved the Library. In the sequel, our main character is Nanami, a 13-year-old, who is obsessed with books. Since she has asthma, she can’t do many physical activities, which is why the library is her solace. But, when she realizes there are books being stolen from her precious library, she takes it upon herself to claim them back along with our cat; Tiger the tabby. This leads to an aspect of magical realism followed by a lot of action and ending with too much social commentary.

Usually when a book is comprised of so many elements, you are bound to like at least a few. Alas! The magical realism was uninspired and somehow very convenient for an asthmatic 13-year-old. The action and drama were simply overdone and should not have had its place in a book that’s supposed to be a feel-good comfort book. And, as for the social commentary? I was not a fan because it was fiction that read like a self-help non-fiction book. (And you know my thoughts on those!) This could potentially work as a children’s novel, as I felt it was quite juvenile and also at times unrelatable or simply too preachy for adults.

If you really want some takeaways in an uninteresting plot and perfectly made characters, then sure, it does have some topics it touches upon in a very subtle manner. About the power that books have, how we should be reading banned books, how we should read what we want to read, and all of this despite massive efforts from those in power to destroy or ban or cause hindrances towards some kinds of literature. This message is extremely important, and yet the way it was played out didn’t have much of an impact. I have rated The Cat Who Saved the Library by Sōsuke Natsukawa, translated by Louise Heal Kawai at 1/5 stars!

~~BOOKS MENTIONED IN THE BOOK~~

I did enjoy listing down all the book referenced in this book, so here you go!

1. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
2. Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
3. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
4. Mr Owl (picture book) 
5. Frederick (picture book)
6. Beneath the Wheel by Hermann Hesse
7. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
8. The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
9. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
10. Gauche the Cellist by Kenji Miyazawa
11. Knight’s Fee by Rosema by Rosemary Sutcliff
12. The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
13. Arsène Lupin, Gentleman Burglar by Maurice Leblanc (Gentleman Thief, The Hollow Needle, 813)
14. The Body by Stephen King
15. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain 
16. The Complete Works of Charles Baudelaire
17. Delphi Complete Works of Gustave Flaubert
18. Hamlet by William Shakespeare
19. The Tragedie of Macbeth by William Shakespeare
20. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R Tolkien
21. Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting
22. Moby Dick by Herman Melville
23. The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
24. The Iliad by Homer
25. The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
26. R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots) by Karel Capek
27. The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
28. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
29. Moko Moko Moko by Shuntarō Tanikawa
30. Don’t Want To Go To Bed? (Nenai Ko Dareda) by Keiko Sena
31. The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde
32. The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
33. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
34. Apparently, Disillusioned Adventurers Will Save the World (Bokensha-tachi) by Shinta Fuji
35. My Father’s Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett
36. The Analects by Confucius
37. The Golden Bough by James Geroge Frazer
38. The Moon and Sixpence by Somerset Maugham
39. Ten novels and their authors by Somerset Maugham
40. Solaris by Stanisław Lem
41. Vie de Beethoven by Romain Rolland
42. Sanshiro by Natsume Soseki

Check out the book review of The Cat Who Saved the Books below:

The Cat Who Saved the Books: A Book for Book Lovers!

Until next time,